White House: Iranian Leader Led Movement ('79 U.S. Embassy capture)

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5173642,00.html

White House: Iranian Leader Led Movement

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House said Thursday that Iran's incoming president was a leader of the student movement that orchestrated the capture of the U.S. Embassy in 1979, but the United States still hasn't determined whether he took hostages as alleged by some of those who were held.

Six former hostages have identified Iran's ultraconservative president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as one of their captors during the 444 days they were held.

Bush said on June 30 that their allegation ``raises many questions.'' The U.S. government has been investigating since then.

``I don't think it should surprise anyone given the nature of the regime in Iran that he might have been involved in these kind of activities,'' said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

But he said no determination has been made.

<</SNIP>>

[StrafingMoose]

1. Who were those detained US personel?

CIA? People housing CIA personel? Well, that was to be expected if yes: "You got caught!".

[geek tragedy]

4. Most of the hostages were not CIA. eom

[StrafingMoose]

5. How would we know anyways ...

[geek tragedy]

7. No evidence to suggest they were. eom

[StrafingMoose]

11. Probably..

But most embassies are know as listening posts for the NSA (and "NSA"'s of other countries too, not just USA does it.). Anyways, yea maybe they weren't CIA.

[Dhalgren]

15. Actually a couple of them were CIA and there were several

Marines...

[Jack from Charlotte]

30. The republican party would have outed them. That's how.*

[geek tragedy]

2. Which means we MUST invade! eom

[RadiDem]

3. This all happened cause we harbored the Shah

if we had turned him over to Iran to be tried for war crimes, they would have not taken the hostages.

Another case of the Right's support for despotic tyrants with ties to the CIA

[NineIron]

21. No offense

No offense but Carter was the one protecting the Shah.

[anotherdrew]

27. Carter followed a lot of bad advice, east timor fer instance

Our Presidents of the future need to stop listening to bad advice from entrenched ass-wipes, like whoever told carter to protect the Shah

[DURHAM D]

6. So what - nothing compared to the Bush crime family that runs

this country.

This is such a non-issue and I don't think it will get any traction with a majority of the American people.

[StrafingMoose]

9. Exactly...

most of them koolaid drinking, FOX watching zombies have a 5mins timespan fuse, let alone things that happened in 1979.

[geek tragedy]

10. News flash: Iran governed by America-hating rightwing fundie asshole

Dog bites man.

[htuttle]

8. He's the guy the Reagan campaign met in Paris in 1980, right?

The one they negotiated holding the hostages longer with?

Or was he the guy they traded TOW anti-tank missiles to during Iran/Contra?

One of them ought to remember -- it's many of the same characters as were in power back then.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. I'll say it again. I do not belive this is the same man unless he's

Dick Clark's relative. The pictures from 1979 and today's makes the guy seem ageless.

[bananas]

29. Vitamins!

[Patty Diana]

36. Ex FBI photo analyst examined the 2 photos for facial features

ie space between eyebrows, earlobes, ans nose_____said it wasn't the same guy. They had him on BBC when hostages 1st made the claim.

[Dhalgren]

13. I am not surprised that an Iranian patriot has been elected

as President of Iran. Why would it "surprise" anyone? In the eyes of Iranians he would be seen as a hero and rightly so. You see, the Iranians ousted their "Saddam" by themselves, not only without US help, but against US interests. In the process the US got kicked out too. Now we are saying "wah,wah he's a terrorist" - bullshit. We got caught (once again) on the wrong side of history, people trying to free their own country treated us badly and now we want everyone to think that we were in the right, back in 1978 and that the Iranians were in the wrong. I guess that maybe people who can't remember beyond the latest set of talking points won't remember the Shah, but I do and I don't blame the Iranians one bit for kicking the US and our puppet Shah out.

[leveymg]

14. "Still hasn't been determined" means has already been proven false

The White House is recycling propaganda it had to back away from all of three weeks ago. How short do they think our memory is?:eyes:

[Kagemusha]

16. Uh, this is the WH only confirming what the Iranians said.

This isn't really news... not the poster's fault, it's the AP's fault...

[judy]

17. So what?

``I don't think it should surprise anyone given the nature of the regime in Iran that he might have been involved in these kind of activities,''

Is this like saying:
``I don't think it should surprise anyone given the nature of the Reagan Administration that he might have been involved in these kind of activities,'' talking about Oliver North?

This is just a bunch of BS to galvanize the Bushbots into accepting an invasion of Iran.

[Harrumph]

18. Why wouldn't this fall under....

youthful indiscretion? It worked for *. Remember anything the shrub did before he turned 40 doesn't count.

[Cocoa]

19. Bush's friends in Iraq are HUGE friends of the Islamic Revolution

in Iran.

Jaafari can't shut up about how great Khomeini was.

[Supersedeas]

20. no determination yet they'll sprinkle some propoganda in the hinterland

[endarkenment]

22. This is none of our business. EOM.

[Starfury]

23. Hasn't this been thoroughly debunked already? Sheesh! n/t

[Bragi]

24. Must be the only ultraconservative the WH dislikes

[EFerrari]

25. Smear. I saw a guest on Hardball contradict this some weeks

ago. And she was there, reporting at the time.

She said this guy may well have been involved but he was definitely not one of the leaders.

I've been looking for her name for half an hour and can't find it or remember it. Very Irish name, long dark hair pulled back usually, sometimes glasses and scarf. Not one of the screamers, unusually well spoken. Argh.


``I don't think it should surprise anyone given the nature of the regime in Iran that he might have been involved in these kind of activities,'' said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

Smear, from the headline to this mendacity from the pResident's liar.

[dArKeR]

26. Who led the movement to install a Puppet Dictator in Iran?

MOHAMMAD REZA PAHLEVI

Shah of Iran

1953 was a busy year for Allen Dulles. Even as he readied the CIA for a coup in Guatemala, his agents were toppling the liberal left government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq and paving the way for the Shah of Iran. With Dulles' encouragement, the Shah made the Iranian people an offer they couldn't refuse -- join his party or go to jail. Thousands who refused to yield were imprisoned or murdered. During regional elections in 1954, the Shah's agents raided a religious school and hurled hundreds of students to their deaths from the roof. His regime received 100% of the vote that year, in an election which registered more votes than there were voters.

The Shah's subsequent solidification of power led to an iron fisted rule enforced by fear and torture. His secret police agency, SAVAK, was created in 1957 and managed by the CIA at all levels of daily operation, including the choice and organization of personnel, selection and operation of equipment, and the running of agents. SAVAK's torture methods included electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails. Iran under the Shah became a devoted US ally and a base for spy operations on the border of the Soviet Union. But eventually, the Shah was overthrown in 1978 by an indigenous people's revolution that held sway until fundamentalist religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile and reasserted his power during the 1979 US hostage crisis.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/EurMEast.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2844.htm

[anotherdrew]

28. Dulles - that man is the source of the evil that is eating this country

If only people would wake up, connect the damn dots, and get the 4th reich the hell out of power buy any means nessesary...

[Eugene]

31. The WH just restated what we already know. Nothing new.

The White House is simply pumping out innuendo
but no new facts.

[uhhuh]

32. HMMMM...

Are they sure he's not the 20th highjacker? Or the mastermind behind the London bombings?

They might be losing their touch. Don't they know they have to stay topical? Nobody's going to care about what happened in 1979.

OOOHHH! I know! He's the one responsible for the disappearance of young girls in Aruba! That's a winner for sure!

[geek tragedy]

33. He's AQ's #3 eom

[wicket]

34. kick

:kick:

[jsamuel]

35. If you believed the WH about Yellow Cake, why not believe them on this too